A Dual-Channel Enhanced Power Generation Architecture with Back-to-back Converter for MEA Application

This paper presents a new electricity power generation architecture for the engine system of more electric aircraft (MEA). A starter/generator (SG) is connected to high-pressure (HP) spool, and a generator is attached to low-pressure (LP) spool. Their outputs supply a common DC bus. A back-to-back (B2B) converter is connected between the AC sides of two generators. There are two main contributions of the proposed idea. First, some power can be transferred from LP shaft to HP shaft via the B2B converter, which will benefit to reduce the fuel consumption and increase compressor surge margin of the engine. Second, the HP starter/generator could operate in a high speed without flux weakening, hence the magnitude of stator current will largely decrease when output same active power, leading to the reduction of overall power losses. Modeling and control method design are illustrated. The effectiveness of proposed power generation architecture, engine performance improvement and power loss reduction are verified.